Koyraboro Senni

WALS coordinates: 16° N, 0° E

spoken in Mali, Niger

Alternative Names

Ethnologue:
Ruhlen:
  • Songhai
Routledge:
  • Songhai
Other:
  • Koyraboro Senni Songhay,
  • Songhai (Koyraboro Senni),
  • Songhay (Koyraboro Senni),
  • Songhai, Gao dialect,
  • Songhai (Gao)
ISO 639-3:

Features

Feature Value References
Phonology
Consonant Inventories Moderately small
Vowel Quality Inventories Average (5-6)
Consonant-Vowel Ratio Average
Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives In plosives alone
Voicing and Gaps in Plosive Systems Missing /p/
Uvular Consonants None
Glottalized Consonants No glottalized consonants
Lateral Consonants /l/, no obstruent laterals
The Velar Nasal Initial velar nasal
Front Rounded Vowels None
Absence of Common Consonants All present
Presence of Uncommon Consonants None
Morphology
Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology Little affixation
Case Syncretism No case marking
Syncretism in Verbal Person/Number Marking No subject person/number marking
Nominal Categories
Number of Genders None
Sex-based and Non-sex-based Gender Systems No gender
Systems of Gender Assignment No gender
Coding of Nominal Plurality Plural clitic
Plurality in Independent Personal Pronouns Person-number stem
The Associative Plural Associative same as additive plural
Definite Articles Definite word distinct from demonstrative
Indefinite Articles No indefinite, but definite article
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Independent Pronouns No inclusive/exclusive
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Verbal Inflection No person marking
Distance Contrasts in Demonstratives No distance contrast
Pronominal and Adnominal Demonstratives Identical
Third Person Pronouns and Demonstratives Unrelated
Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal Pronouns No gender distinctions
Politeness Distinctions in Pronouns No politeness distinction
Indefinite Pronouns Generic-noun-based
Intensifiers and Reflexive Pronouns Differentiated
Person Marking on Adpositions No person marking
Number of Cases No morphological case-marking
Asymmetrical Case-Marking Additive-quantitatively asymmetrical
Position of Case Affixes No case affixes or adpositional clitics
Ordinal Numerals First/one-th, two-th, three-th
Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes No possessive affixes
Nominal Syntax
Action Nominal Constructions Restricted
Nominal and Verbal Conjunction Differentiation
Verbal Categories
Perfective/Imperfective Aspect Grammatical marking
The Past Tense No past tense
The Future Tense No inflectional future
The Perfect No perfect
Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes No tense-aspect inflection
The Morphological Imperative Second singular and second plural
The Prohibitive Special imperative + special negative
Imperative-Hortative Systems Both types of system
The Optative Inflectional optative absent
Situational Possibility Verbal constructions
Overlap between Situational and Epistemic Modal Marking Overlap for either possibility or necessity
Semantic Distinctions of Evidentiality No grammatical evidentials
Coding of Evidentiality No grammatical evidentials
Suppletion According to Tense and Aspect None
Verbal Number and Suppletion None
Word Order
Order of Subject, Object and Verb SOV
Order of Subject and Verb SV
Order of Object and Verb OV
Order of Object, Oblique, and Verb OVX
Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase Postpositions
Order of Genitive and Noun Genitive-Noun
Order of Adjective and Noun Noun-Adjective
Order of Demonstrative and Noun Noun-Demonstrative
Order of Numeral and Noun Noun-Numeral
Order of Relative Clause and Noun Noun-Relative clause
Position of Polar Question Particles In either of two positions
Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content Questions Initial interrogative phrase
Order of Adverbial Subordinator and Clause Initial subordinator word
Relationship between the Order of Object and Verb and the Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase OV and Postpositions
Relationship between the Order of Object and Verb and the Order of Relative Clause and Noun OV and NRel
Relationship between the Order of Object and Verb and the Order of Adjective and Noun OV and NAdj
Simple Clauses
Alignment of Case Marking of Full Noun Phrases Neutral
Alignment of Case Marking of Pronouns Neutral
Alignment of Verbal Person Marking Neutral
Expression of Pronominal Subjects Obligatory pronouns in subject position
Verbal Person Marking No person marking
Third Person Zero of Verbal Person Marking No person marking
Order of Person Markers on the Verb A and P do not or do not both occur on the verb
Ditransitive Constructions: The Verb 'Give' Mixed
Reciprocal Constructions Distinct from reflexive
Passive Constructions Present
Antipassive Constructions Implicit patient
Applicative Constructions Non-benefactive object; both bases
Periphrastic Causative Constructions Both
Nonperiphrastic Causative Constructions Both
Negative Morphemes Negative particle
Symmetric and Asymmetric Standard Negation Both
Subtypes of Asymmetric Standard Negation A/Cat
Negative Indefinite Pronouns and Predicate Negation Predicate negation also present
Polar Questions Question particle
Complex Sentences
Relativization on Subjects Gap
Relativization on Obliques Gap
'Want' Complement Subjects Subject is expressed overtly
Lexicon
Numeral Bases Decimal
M-T Pronouns No M-T pronouns
N-M Pronouns No N-M pronouns
Tea Others